Doctoral Dissertation Research: Placing Federal District Courts in the Judicial Hierarchy

博士论文研究：将联邦地方法院纳入司法体系

• 批准号: 0818751
• 负责人: Andrew Martin
• 金额: $ 1.12万
• 依托单位: Washington University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-07-01 至 2010-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0818751&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Placing; Federal

As trial courts, federal district courts are the first, and in many cases the only, face of justice for litigants in the federal judicial system. And yet, our knowledge of the business of these important courts is quite limited.Viewed as the sum of its three essays, this dissertation project seeks to remedy this deficit and unearth an unprecedented degree of evidence on the role and place of federal district courts in the judicial hierarchy. In particular, this research statistically models (1) the direct impact that courts of appeals have on district court outcomes; (2) the losing litigant?s decision to appeal from district courts to courts of appeals and the resulting appellate outcome based on that appeal; and (3) the initial disposition of cases in federal district courts, with a specific focus on the sex of the judge presiding over the case and the likelihood of case settlement.The data collected for this project promise to be some of the most comprehensive ever amassed on the subject. By collecting and coding thousands of case dockets, opinions, and other court documents across multiple years, thirty district courts, and numerous issues areas that together account for about forty percent of federal district court civil dockets, this research improves on previous studies that generally rely on only published or reported opinions, a small number of district courts, and a limited set of issue areas. These data are combined with judge and litigant specific information, providing unprecedented insights into the development of law, the strategies of parties, the managerial role of judges, and the influence of intermediate appellate courts.

作为初审法院，联邦地区法院是联邦司法系统中诉讼当事人的第一个，在许多情况下也是唯一的司法机构。然而，我们对这些重要法院的业务的了解是相当有限的。作为三篇论文的总结，本论文项目旨在弥补这一缺陷，并挖掘出前所未有的证据，证明联邦地区法院在司法体系中的作用和地位。 特别是，这项研究的统计模型（1）上诉法院对地区法院的结果的直接影响;（2）失去诉讼当事人？的决定，从地区法院上诉到上诉法院和由此产生的上诉结果的基础上，上诉;（3）案件在联邦地区法院的初步处置，特别关注法官主持案件的性别和案件解决的可能性。 通过收集和编码数千个案件的备审案件，意见，以及多年来的其他法院文件，30个地区法院，以及共同占联邦地区法院民事备审案件约40%的众多问题领域，这项研究改进了以前的研究，通常只依赖于发表或报告的意见，少数地区法院，以及有限的问题领域。这些数据与法官和诉讼当事人的具体信息相结合，为法律的发展，当事人的战略，法官的管理作用以及中级上诉法院的影响提供了前所未有的见解。